Vatican

Vatican News

Cardinal Gerhard Müller attends the funeral Mass for Australian Cardinal George Pell
in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican in this file photo from Jan. 14. At a book
presentation June 9, Müller said popes should retire "only in extreme cases." (CNS
photo/Paul Haring)

Justin McLellan

View Author Profile

Catholic News Service

View Author Profile

Join the Conversation

Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more

Rome — June 12, 2023

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint

A papal resignation should occur only in "truly extreme cases" and must not
"become the norm," said the former head of the Vatican's doctrinal office.

Speaking at the presentation of his book "In Bona Fede" (In Good Faith), co-written
with Italian journalist Franca Giansoldati, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said June 9 that
Pope Benedict XVI's decision to retire from the papacy should remain an exception.

"We know that until the last hour of (Benedict's) life he was totally competent
intellectually and spiritually, and this is enough, he didn't have to go on trips," said
the cardinal. "He would have been capable of governing the church until his death."

Müller was the prefect of the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from
2012 to 2017. His comments came just two days after Pope Francis was put under
general anesthesia to undergo a three-hour abdominal surgery for a hernia June 7.
The Vatican said June 12 the pope's recovery remains normal and that he is working
from the hospital.

Although Francis has alluded to the possibility of resigning from the papacy if he was
not capable of fulfilling his duties, in February he told a group of Jesuits working in
Congo that the ministry of the pope should be "ad vitam" -- for life.

Advertisement

In December 2022, the pope revealed to the Spanish newspaper ABC that he had
signed a resignation letter "in case of a health impediment" and had given it to
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then Vatican secretary of state, two months after he was
elected to the papacy.
Müller said that precisely because the instances in which a pope should resign are
extreme, the church "cannot form rules in advance" to govern them. He noted,
however, that popes maintain the right to resign if they choose to.

"The papacy, the episcopate, is a testimony of faith also in its passion," said the
cardinal. "It should not be compared to the office of a minister or president; there's a
big difference. In this case, we have different, more spiritual, categories to
consider."

Müller said that despite increasing life expectancy worldwide, the church should not
institute an age limit on the papacy.

"We have so many bishops that are 60 years old that are not very competent and
others that are 85 years old that are more competent," he said.